This past Christmas, my family and I attended the AM1320 CHMB Christmas Dinner again at the Continental Restaurant in Richmond. My Dad enjoyed the event so much from previous years that he thought it would be a good idea to go to their event again. It was a ticketed event priced at $55 per person or $499 for a table of 10. The evening also included entertainment by the station’s radio hosts, singing performances, a photo booth, appearances by Santa as well as a raffle draw with an impressive number of prizes.

The restaurant interior seemed a bit dated but it’s spacious and can handle a dance floor, stage, etc. I’d say there were about 600 people in attendance.

In general, I thought the food by the restaurant was better than the previous year. For our table of 10, portions were reasonable and we left the dinner feeling like we ate our money’s worth.

These fried tofu puffs were nicely crispy on the outside.

The scallops and veggies were nicely tender.

The hoisin shrimp and broccoli dish was my favourite for the evening. The shrimp tasted very good as they were quite snappy.

Service

The service was reasonably friendly and smooth considering the number of diners. The food was sent to our tables in a timely manner and I could see the staff working hard. The staff seemed very accustomed to catering to a full restaurant.

Overall Impression of Continental Restaurant

The multi-course Christmas dinner I had at Continental Restaurant was OK in terms of the food but props to the staff for good service. Rating: 3.5/5

Alexandra Road, also known as “Food Street,” in Richmond seems to have an endless number of choices for Asian cuisine. One longstanding restaurant in the area, Beijiang Restaurant, has been open since 2009 and specializes in Halal Xinjiang Ugyhur-style dishes. Beijiang was formerly located at Venezia Place on Alexandra Road but moved to neighboring block Leslie Road about 6 months ago. I was invited to a media tasting at Beijiang restaurant last week by way of Foodology.ca. Here’s a look at what the restaurant has to offer.

Disclosure: All food and drinks in this review were complimentary. Opinions are my own.

Uyghur Cuisine

For the uninitiated, Uyghur is pronounced “WEE-grr” and is the name of one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups on Chinese. The population of Uyghur is around 10 million and most Uyghurs live in the Northwestern province of Xinjiang. The Silk Road ran through Xinjiang as it borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. While most are familiar with the majority Han Chinese culture, Uyghurs are Muslim and speak their own Turkic language, also called Uyghur. Uyghur dishes have Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences and are meat-centric and can be oily. Cumin is a favorite spice that is used in Ugyhur cusine. Signature Ugyghur dishes are Dapanji (Chicken) and Cumin Lamb while rice pilaf and naan are common as well.

Beijiang Restaurant Background / Free Parking

The original owners of Beijiang Restaurant sold the place to Richard Li three years ago. Li had a hospitality background from Ontario and had owned and operated a Japanese restaurant in California. After moving to Vancouver to support his daugher’s education at UBC, he took ownership of Beijiang Restaurant. Diners who do not speak Chinese will have no problem at Beijiang Restaurant as he is fluent in English. Furthemore, the chefs at Beijiang have expertise in making hand-pulled noodles, BBQ skewers and naan bread.

As many people who have ventured to Alexandra Road would know, finding parking is difficult. One of the appeals of Beijiang’s new location is complimentary on-site parking.

Dark Green & Gold

The interior of Beijiang Restaurant is decorated using colors common to Uyghur culture: dark green and gold. The dessert mural, overhanging lights and oil lamps also add to the decor. The restaurant is spacious with a variety of round dining tables. A private VIP room with karaoke is also available for parties and events.

What We Tried

Dapangji

The first dish of our tasting was Dapangji, one of the most common dishes of Xinjiang cuisine. Dapangji emerged as popular dish in the midmid-to-late 1990s. It is said to have been invented in by a migrant from Sichuan who mixed hot chili peppers with chicken and potatoes to mimic the spicy Sichuan taste. The dish was served on a big plate at roadside restaurants along the Xinjiang highways as a quick fix for hungry truck drivers who often arrived at odd ours.

Beijang’s version of Dapangji was rich, hearty in flavour, and had a nice spicy kick though not fiery hot. I loved the tender braised chicken cubes and the hand-pulled housemade noodles. At Beijiang Restaurant, you can get this in different sizes: large ($31.90), medium ($26.90) and small ($22.90).

Lauan Twigs Lamb Kabobs

No visit to a Xinjiang restaurant would be complete without enjoying some lamb skewers. The ones at Beijiang Restaurant are presented using Lauan twigs – that is, a type of wood species from South East Asia. Priced at $3.75 each, these lamb kabobs had a very nice meaty flavour and were seasoned with cumin.

Lamb Bone Pot

The Lamb Bone Pot was another hearty dish that is great for communal sharing. Diners can order a small ($33.99) or large ($45.99). Watch the video below to see the meat fall off the bone oh-so-easily!

Hand-pulled, housemade noodles in raw dough form are added to the Lamb Bone Pot. The noodles are cooked for 10 minutes in order to infuse the flavours of the broth. The length of the noodles is impressive as the goal is to have just “one noodle” to fill the entire plate. The longer the unbroken noodle, the more talented the chef!

Stir-fried slices of lamb served with steamed buns

One of my favourite dishes of the evening was lamb slices in steamed buns ($26.99). The flavourful and spicy lamb was contrasted by the crispy and sweet steamed buns. I would love to have this again.

Xinjiang style lamb leg shanks

We also tried lamb leg shanks ($11.99) which were OK but not as memorable in terms of flavour, presentation as the other dishes mentioned above.

Lamb Puff Pastry

The lamb puff pastry was tasty but more of an indulgent nature due to its oiliness.

Sweet corn pancake

For dessert, we had a rather interesting dessert – a sweet corn pancake. It may seem a bit different from your Taiwanese or Hong Kong dessert. Considering that naans are quite common in Xinjiang cuisine, it’s not surprising that this could translate to a dessert dish. The pancake was loaded with corn kernels and topped with sugar. I’m not sure this is quite the dessert that I would personally find satisfying as I would prefer something of a “smooth and silky” nature. But I did appreciate the restaurant’s commitment to offering a traditional Xinjiang Uyghur dessert.

Overall Impression of Beijiang Restaurant

The dining experience at Beijiang Restaurant was overall very enjoyable and the dishes were well-executed. My favourite dishes of the evening were the stir-fried slices of lamb served with steamed buns, lamb kabobs and dapanji. Definitely a place worth checking out and with the owner’s inviting demeanor, non-Chinese speaking individuals would certainly feel welcome. I’d be interested in revisiting as well as trying out their other location on Kingsway. Rating: 4/5

Sulmida Korean Dessert Cafe has been quite successful in Metro Vancouver since opening up their first location in Burnaby last year. With the popularity of their Korean shaved ice desserts, Sulmida opened up two more locations this year including Richmond and Downtown Vancouver. I had purchased a few deals via Axka.com to give the Richmond location a try. Here’a look at my experience.

Clean & Modern Space

Compared to Sulmida Burnaby, the Richmond location is much more spacious, clean and modern. There are mostly two-person tables which can be pushed together for larger groups.

Sulmida Richmond Menu

Sulmida specializes in bingsu (variants “patbingsu,” “bingsoo”) which are Shaved Ice Desserts. They serve 12 different types including Green Tea, Mango Cheese, Choco Berry and more. The bingsu come in two sizes (single or full) and ranged from $7 – $14 at the time of my visit. For beverages, they offer hot and cold espresso-based drinks, fruit ades, lattes and frappes. Other dessert options include Lava Bread and Injelomi Toast.

WHAT WE TRIED

I had purchased two separate Axka.com deals. One was priced at $9.99 (36% regular price) for a small bingsu and fruit ade while the other was $8.99 (33% off) for a Injelomi Toast and hot drink.

We went with the Green Tea bingsu featuring milk shaved ice, red beans, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and two sliced almonds which looked like “ears.” I thought the bingsu was good in general. It had a reasonable green tea flavour and the milk shaved ice was light and fluffy.

We also tried the Green Tea Lava Bread which unfortunately wasn’t very lava-y at all! My friend did such a great job cutting through the bread (as shown in the video). The dreams of a molten centre were quickly abated when nothing evolved! I would not recommend the Lava Bread at all.

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We tried the Yogurt Berry Injelomi Toast which featured toasted bread topped with yogurt, fresh berries. I thought the toast was good though nothing to write home about. The bread was nicely warm and the berries were reasonably fresh.

We also had the Lemon Ade which was a carbonated drink with lemon slices.

And my friend had a Matcha Latte which she said was OK.

Sulmida Groupon Deal

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links below, which means I receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up. Thanks for the support!

There is currently a Groupon Deal for Sulmida Richmond and their newest location in Downtown Vancouver. There are two options: $21 for two Shaved Ice or $19 for 1 Shaved Ice and 1 Lava Bread. I am going to try out the Downtown Location and went for the 2 Shaved Ice options. To find out more about this deal, click here.

OVERALL IMPRESSION OF SULMIDA Richmond

I thought the Green Tea Bingsu we tried was good and I would recommend it to others. The Injelomi Toast was good but the Lava Bread was underwhelming. Although I prefer Passion8 and Snowy Village, I’d be interested to try Sulmida’s other bingsu flavours. Rating: 3.5/5

Newly opened in Richmond is Dazzling Cafe‘s first location outside of Asia. Dazzling Cafe is a trendy, cafe chain with locations in Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Their claim to fame is their Honey Toast which is artfully presented, comes in different flavours and satisfying to the sweet tooth. Dazzling Cafe Richmond opened near the end of February and is in a soft opening phase until tomorrow. I heard about the hype surrounding Dazzling Cafe with long line-ups outside the door. This past week, I decided to visit Dazzling Cafe Richmond to see what they are about.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. This meal was not complimentary. I did not receive any compensation or incentive to share about my experience. The restaurant did not know that I am a blogger.

Dazzling Cafe Menu

While Dazzling Cafe’s interior looks like a place where you would go for afternoon tea, they offer a different selection of foods rather the usual scones, macarons, and little cakes. For hot entrees, they have pasta, rice casseroles, pizza as well as soups and salads. Their tantalizing dessert menu includes their famous Honey Toasts and waffles. The coffee and tea menu seem fancier as well with beverage offerings like “Royal Matcha Latte,” “Rose Milk Tea,” and “Vanilla & Matcha Au Lait.”

Based on the pricing, I think that Dazzling Cafe is a bit more upscale. The hot entrees range between $10 – $14 while the Honey Toasts are between $12 – $15. The espresso-based beverages stood out to be me in terms of price as “Dazzling Black Coffee” costs $5 and goes upwards of $7 for a premium drink like “Strawberry White Chocolate Mocha Latte.”

You can find photos of the menu on their Facebook Page. One thing to note is that I found the Chinese name for the menu items to be more descriptive and interesting than their English translations.

Reservations Recommended

Looking at their Facebook page, it seems like reservations were recommended. So, I made two attempts on the phone to make a reservation but no one answered. As a result, I took my chances by walking-in. The wait wasn’t too long for our party of three – less than a half hour. Seatings are for 90 minutes and the staff informed us of that.

Interior

The interior was modern and seemed to have a bit of a modern Paris kind of feel. I think their overall branding is more on the feminine side. Some of their chairs have bunny ears on the back.

And look at these luxurious arm chairs fit for a princess…

Service

Now before I discuss the food that we tried, I’ll mention the service. I was surprised at how excellent the service was and perhaps this is reflected in their pricing. The staff members were friendly and professional starting from when they took down my name for the waitlist to refilling glasses, checking in, dividing up the Honey Toasts, and bringing the bill. Service exceeded my expectations.

What We Tried

We went with their soft opening promotion (available till March 12) which was a free original Honey Toast with purchase of two entrees (either rice casseroles or pasta). If you buy four entrees, you can get two free original Honey Toasts. You can upgrade to a different Honey Toast and pay the difference.

Our party of three had the following:

Rose Latte ($5.20)

Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce ($11.50)

Shrimp Spaghetti with Paprika Cream Sauce ($13.50)

Mussels Rice Casserole with Pesto ($12.50)

Pan-fried Squid Casserole with Squid Ink Sauce ($13.50)

Mont-Blanc Honey Toast Upgrade ($3.00)

Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast Upgrade ($4.00)

To start, my friend had the rose latte. It was wonderfully fragrant with just a a hint of rose water for a lightly floral-enhanced latte.

The Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce was a hit at our table. The amount of fish roe given was very reasonable. The pasta was al dente and the dish overall had a nice, subtly briny flavour. Very good and I would recommend this.

The Shrimp Spaghetti with Paprika Cream Sauce was average and nothing really stood out in terms of flavour.

The Mussels Rice Casserole with Pesto was tasty dish from the pesto flavour though the mussels were on the small side. No juicy, plump mussels unfortunately.

The Pan-fried Squid Casserole with Squid Ink Sauce was a fun dish to eat but on the heavier side. It was just mostly rice, with a fried lotus slice and a few mussels. You’ll need to remember to wipe your mouth after eating this as your lips turn black. This dish definitely had tasted like the ocean.

The staff kept an eye on our table as to when our entrees were finished. They timed it so that the Honey Toasts would come out soon after we were done with the mains. The staff is well-trained to divide up the Honey Toasts for you at tableside. Check out my video below of how the staff did it:

If you’re not familiar with Honey Toast, they are a toasted and buttered bread dessert originating from Japan. Also known as “brick toast,” Honey Toast is an architectural dessert that is popular in Asia. The bread box base of the Honey Toast is, in essence, made from cutting off the end of a fresh loaf of bread and then hollowing it out. The hollowed out bread is then further cut into cubes pieces, coated in butter and toasted. These cubes are then placed inside the bread box base and then toppings are added for presentation.

The Mont Blanc Honey Toast was very good with a delicious, caramelized bread. The toppings were puréed, sweetened chestnuts, whipped cream and chestnuts.

Of course, after we cut into it, it looked quite like a massacre.

The Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast seemed more architecturally complex and was also quite tasty. Tt came with fresh strawberries, a mountain of whipped cream and a chocolate (and hazelnut?) drizzle. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the hazelnut flavour but the dessert was pretty good in general.

Overall Impression of Dazzling Cafe Richmond

Despite the pricier menu, I’m giving Dazzling Cafe Richmond a higher rating because I enjoyed the service so much. That really enhanced the overall experience. Of the hot entrees we tried, I’d recommend the Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce. The Honey Toasts were pretty good as well and I would return just for them. Rating: 4/5

Last Christmas, my family and I attended the AM1320 CHMB Christmas Dinner at the Continental Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. My dad is an avid listener of AM1320, a Chinese radio station in Vancouver, and he thought it would be a good idea to go to their event. It was a ticketed event priced at $55 per person or $499 for a table of 10. The evening also included entertainment by the station’s radio hosts, singing performances, a photo booth, appearances by Santa as well as a raffle draw with an impressive number of prizes.

The restaurant interior seemed a bit dated but it’s spacious and can handle a dance floor, stage, etc. I’d say there were about 500 people in attendance.

What We Tried

In general, I thought the food from Continental restaurant was okay. There were a few dishes that tasted a bit bland and could use more flavour. For our table of 10, portions were reasonable and we left the dinner feeling like we ate our money’s worth.

The hoisin shrimp and broccoli dish was probably my favourite. The shrimp tasted very good as they were quite snappy.

The Shanghai noodles weren’t particularly flavourful. I didn’t think there was enough sauce on each noodle.

The red bean soup tasted a bit dilute and was quite sweet enough for me.

Service

The service was quite smooth considering the number of diners. The food was sent to our tables in a timely manner and I could see the staff working hard. I guess the staff is used to handling such a large event.

Overall Impression of Continental Seafood Restaurant

The multi-course Christmas dinner I had at Continental was just OK in terms of the food but the service was quite good for such a large event. However, based on the food alone, I don’t have much interest in returning. Rating: 3.5/5

My last visit to Bubble Queen was very enjoyable (see post here) and I was eager for a revisit. This time around, I went to their Richmond location at 8888 Odlin Crescent. Prior to Bubble Queen, I had attended a media dinner at Taiwanese stiry-fry restaurant, Maji, to preview their inaugural Ocean Wise menu. The tasting did not involve any dessert so I still had room for something sweet to finish off the evening.

Friendly Service Near Closing

I came into Bubble Queen right at 8:55 pm right before they closed at 9 pm and the girl at the counter still greeted me with a smile. This was a surprise because I usually don’t expect such a friendly service at these type of establishments.

Bubble Queen Menu

The menu at Bubble Queen is extensive for a bubble tea house; you’ll find menus posted on the wall, around the counter and above the counter. There is a lot to look at. Bubble Queen offers many different flavours of bubble waffles available like chocolate, sesame, coffee, pineapple and more. You can even have toppings for the bubble waffle like oreo crumble and shredded dried pork. Choices for bubble tea are aplenty (fresh fruit, powder, ice cream, slushes) and they offer espresso-based drinks also. Check out Bubble Queen’s Zomato listing for photos of their menu.

What I Tried

The girl at the counter happily took my order of a Fresh Mango Cubes Slush with Pearl ($7.50) and a Classic Milk Tea with Pearl ($4.50). The mango slush with pearl is sort of a mini-meal in itself; it’s dense, slushy and very refreshing. The bottom is slush and the top had fresh mango cubes. The mangos that they used were ripe and sweet. Very delicious.

The original milk tea had a noticeably strong tea flavour. Definitely a contrast to the weak, tea flavour from Shiny Tea.

Overall Impression

The fresh mango cubes slush with pearls was really good and I recommend it. It’s sort of pricier because they use fresh fruit. I continue to be a fan of Bubble Queen and would return in the future. Bonus points for service with a smile. Rating: 4.5/5

If you’re a dessert lover, L’otus Cake Boutique is the kind of place that is worth the drive. It’s a new dessert cafe which opened in Richmond a few weeks ago and they offer different flavoured mille crêpes cakes – a classic French cake with alternating layers of crêpe and cream. My friend, Alice, is a mille crêpe connoisseur having made crêpes cakes herself (see video here). This past week, we visited L’otus Cake Boutique to see just how good their crêpes cakes are.

Modern Cafe

Located at 8580 Cambie Road across Continental Centre, L’otus Cake Boutique is a small, modern cafe that seats about 20 people. The space is bright and clean with white and grey marble details.

The mille crêpes cakes are freshly made in-house throughout the day and I noticed they were coming out of the kitchen periodically.

The display case has lots of tantalizing goodies.

L’otus Cake Boutique Menu

The mille crêpes cake flavours that were available at the time of my visit were matcha, Earl Grey and mango. The matcha and Earl Grey are $8.00 a slice while the mango one is $13.80! There is a premium charge for the mango mille crêpe cake because the mangos are imported from the Philippines. On their menu are other mousse cakes, Mont blanc and cheesecakes (matcha and pineapple) but these were not available at the time. The girl at the counter said they only have whatever is on display.

L’otus also offers espresso-based beverages and teas to go along with your dessert.

The mango mille crêpes cakes are certainly a premium cake!

What We Tried

Alice had a matcha latte ($5.25) which came in the most pretty sakura-inspired matcha chawan.

We shared matcha and Earl Grey mille crêpes cakes. Both cakes were oh-so-good and were moist, light, creamy and flavourful. The mille crêpes cakes weremore cream than crepe as the crepe layers were thin while the cream layers were thicker.

My favourite was the Earl Grey mille crêpes cakebecause it had such a delicious Earl Grey flavour. I also found the cake to be quite fragrant from the bergamot.

Also delicious was the Matcha which had a decent green tea flavour.

And the cakes are so easy to cut into with just a fork as shown in my video below:

Overall Impression ofL’otus Cake Boutique

I quite enjoyed the skillfully crafted mille crêpes cakes at L’otus Cake Boutique. Their mille crêpes cakes are worth trying and I’d be interested in having their other desserts in the future. Rating: 4/5

Last year, I had the pleasure of attending Taste of Aberdeen, a Chinesebites.com media gathering where 60 influencers indulged in 30 dishes by 20 Aberdeen Food Court vendors over 2.5 hours. It was there that I was introduced to Szechuan House, one of the vendors at the food court which focused on Szechuan cuisine.

Disclosure: One of the items discussed in this review was complimentary.

What I Tried

I must admit that I’m not much of a Szechuan cuisine lover so when we were presented with the Hot & Sour Soup Rice Noodle I wasn’t bursting with excitement. But alas, I did give it a try though I seemed to have not photographed it. The version of Hot & Sour Soup Rice Noodle presented by Szechuan House tasted like the real deal: spicy, flavourful and numbing to the mouth. I quite enjoyed the thin, silky smooth rice noodles.

Fast forward to last month when I revisited Szechuan House to order another item to round out this review. Fortunately, I had my husband with me who is a Szechuan food fanatic. We ordered the Hot Pot ($10.50) for him to consume mostly and me to sample. It literally was a mish mash of ingredients including cauliflower, tree fungus, button mushroom, soy bean sprouts, enoiki mushrooms, celery, lunch meat, lotus root, radish, shrimp, imitation crab meat, fishball and more that we could not quite identify. We liked the variety of ingredients offered and it was certainly filling given the portions at $10.50. My husband rated it 3/5 (he’s a tough critic.)

Overall Impression of Szechuan House

Szechuan House at Aberdeen Food Court seems like a reasonable place for spicy, Szechuan-style fast food. Tongue-numbing and reasonably flavoured food. Rating: 3/5

Chef of Dumplings is one of the food vendors located inside the Aberdeen Centre Food Court in Richmond. Based on the earliest Yelp review posted, this food stall has been around for over three years now. While their name suggests that they specialize in handmade dumplings, their menu really has pre-made grocery store dumplings plus a whole lot of other things.

Disclosure: Some of the items in this review were complimentary.

Chef of Dumplings Menu

The popular offering at Chef of Dumplings is their 4 in 1 pancake combo. For $8.25, you get choice of pancake (roti canai, green onion pancake, or Chinese chive pancake), meat (calamari, beef, lamb, pork, or chicken), meat flavour (cumin, satay or Teriyaki), dumpling (Chinese chive and pork, white cabbage and pork, watercress and chicken, or vegetable), and an imitation Hong Kong Style Shark’s Fin Soup.

As for their dumplings, I believe that they are pre-bought, frozen, machine-made dumplings like the ones that you get at the grocery store. At places where they make their dumplings like Shanghai Dumpling House or Dinesty, you can see the person making them behind the counter. At Chef of Dumplings, I saw a girl at the counter on her cell phone.

Taste of Aberdeen

Last year, I had the pleasure of attending Taste of Aberdeen, a Chinesebites.com media extravaganza where 60 influencers indulged in 30 dishes by 20 Aberdeen Food Court vendors over 2.5 hours. It was there that I sampled Chef of Dumpling’s pan fried Chinese chives with pork dumplings. The skin was quite thick and tough suggesting that they are machine made. I liked how they weren’t overfried and that they weren’t super greasy.

4 in 1 pancake combo

I revisited Chef of Dumplings recently to round out my this review. For the $8.25 combo, I went with a green onion pancake, cumin-flavoured lamb, white cabbage and pork dumpling, and imitation shark fin soup. For the price, I would say that the combo was decent and filling. The food wasn’t all that bad either and even surprised me at how tasty it was for Chinese fast food. The green onion pancake was quite crispy, not burnt and not too greasy. The stir-fried lamb could have used more cumin flavour but the texture was nice and tender.

The dumplings were boiled – not much to highlight here.

However, I was really surprised by how tasting the imitation shark fin soup was. A popular Hong Kong snack, I have never ordered this at a restaurant in Metro Vancouver. It’s a shark-friendly, vegetarian soup with dried black fungus. The soup perhaps had some MSG and was kinda good. I wouldn’t mind having it again.

Overall Impression of Chef of Dumplings

Chef of Dumplings is a bit of a misnomer for place that serves machine-made pre-bought dumplings. However, I found the 4-in-1 combo priced at $8.25 to be pretty tasty and filling. Rating: 3/5

If you’re a lover of bubble tea by Gong Cha, you’ll be happy to know that they now have a location in Richmond. Gong Cha Richmond opened late last month and is located at 6068 No. 3 Road on the ground level of the Paloma 1 condo building. It is conveniently about a block away from the Richmond Brighouse Skytrain station. This is the second Gong Cha shop that has opened in Metro Vancouver with the first one being on Robson. Originally from Taiwan, Gong Cha has over 1,200 stores worldwide including Japan, Korea, Australia and the US. I had a positive experience from visiting their Robson location earlier in September, so I was eager to visit their newest shop in Richmond.

GONG CHA MENU

You could say that Gong Cha is a “higher-end” bubble tea house because they offer more creative drinks and charge higher prices than a “budget” chain like Bubble World. The Gong Cha menu is organized by series: Signature, Brewed Tea, Milk Tea, Creative Mix, Coffee, Fresh Milk, and Ice Smoothies. Drinks come in regular or large ranging from $4 – $6. Their Signature Series features drinks with milk foam which adds a more complex flavour to the drink due to a slight salty but sweet milk taste. Salt in small quantities enhances the sweet flavour. Milk foam is also considered to be a healthier alternative to whipped cream.

There are 9 topping choices at Gong Cha. They are $0.50 each and include milk foam, pearl, white pearl, coconut jelly, red bean, basil seeds, pudding, grass jelly, and ai-yu jelly. You can also customize sweetness and ice levels.

And if you have trouble deciding what to order, you can always go with the Top 10 Gong Cha Drinks which are presented on the menu.

Sleek & Modern

Gong Cha Richmond’s interior is rather sleek and modern in design. There are quite a few large dining tables which is great for small groups. I also saw some people with their laptops there so it looks like a reasonable place to study or work.

What I Tried

I ordered three drinks to share with the family:

Milk Foam Black Forest, regular size ($5.90)

Earl Grey Milk Tea with 3J, regular size ($5.40)

Hot Royal Milk Tea with pearl, regular size ($4.80)

All of the three drinks are in the list of Top 10 Gong Cha drinks. The Milk Foam Black Forest was the most expensive of all the drinks costing nearly $6. Unfortunately, it was also my least favourite. The staff had warned me that it was more like a dessert drink. I thought overall the drink was just really dense; it had milk foam, grassy jelly and pearls. The drink lacked an ease of flow from having a milk tea. I would not order this drink again.

Moving on, the Royal Milk Tea with Pearl and Earl Grey Milk Tea with 3J were solid choices and ones I had enjoyed before. I went with a hot version for Royal Milk Tea and it was very comforting on a cold winter day. The Earl Grey Milk Tea with 3J had a very good Earl Grey flavour and the tri-mix of toppings (pudding, grass jelly and pearl) was tasty. The tapioca pearls were also particularly good: smooth and slightly soft on the outside, but chewy through to the middle with a slightly increasing level of firmness.

OVERALL IMPRESSION of Gong Cha Richmond

While I would avoid ordering the Milk Foam Black Forest, the other drinks at Gong Cha Richmond were quite good in terms of tea flavour, topping texture, sweetness and ice levels. I would return again in the future. Rating: 4/5